Qatar’s campaign to link towns within its borders and provide connections to neighbouring states has made progress in recent weeks with the award of a turnkey contract for the Doha Metro and the launch of a new prequalification process for civil works on Phase 1 of the Long Distance Passenger and Freight Rail network.

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), a leading aluminium producer in the world, has announced it has signed a Service Level Agreement with APM Terminals Bahrain, operator of the kingdom’s Khalifa Bin Salman Port.
Signing the agreement were Alba’s adviser to the CEO, Jean-Baptiste Lucas, and Marco Neelsen, CEO of APM Terminals Bahrain.

BAHRAIN-based Islamic investment firm Arcapita has announced the sale of PODS Inc, the provider of portable storage and moving solutions for residential and business customers in North America, for more than $1 billion.
PODS has been sold to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), Arcapita said in a statement.

DP World handled 60 million teu (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals during 2014, with gross container volumes growing by 8.9 per cent on reported basis and 8 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

Middle Eastern air carriers reported strong growth in cargo demand in 2014, expanding 11.3 per cent last December and 11 per cent for the year as a whole. However yields declined indicating challenges remain to enhancing the value proposition.

DWC freight volume surges
DUBAI World Central (DWC) recorded a 262.5 per cent surge in freight volumes to 758,371 tonnes in 2014 at its Al Maktoum International Airport compared with 209,209 tonnes in the previous year.

Gulf Industry, published by Al Hilal Group has now established itself as a "must-read" publication for anyone with an involvement in the region's industrial sector whether as manufacturers, distributors or related service organisations.The publication represents a "window" into the Gulf's manufacturing trading and export sectors providing news, views analysis and information across virtually every industry related sector.